DOCSLIB.ORG

And Vice Versa )

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
And Vice Versa ) The Influence of German Language, Literature, and Culture on English and American Language, Life, and Letters. (and vice versa ) David A Reibel (Tübingen and York) _________________________ MISS PRISM [Calling .] Cecily! Cecily! ... intellectual pleasures await you. Your German grammar is on the table. Pray open it at page fifteen. We will repeat yesterday’s lesson. CECILY [Coming over very slowly .] But I don’t like German. It isn’t at all a becoming language. I know perfectly well that I look quite plain after my German lesson. [third exchange later:] CECILY I wish Uncle Jack would allow that unfortunate young man, his brother, to come down here sometimes. We might have a good influence over him, Miss Prism. I am sure you certainly would. You know German, and geology, and things of that kind influence a man very much. (Oscar Wilde. (1854-1900). The Importance of Being Ernest . 1895. Second Act. Scene [1].) _________________________ German influence on English life and culture was exercised either directly, through contact, visits and longer stays, or through the reading of German literature, usually in translation, although also in the original. The influence was felt in all aspects of English life, often mediated through the initiatives of Prince Albert (1819-1861), Prince Consort to Queen Victoria (1819-1901; reigned 1837-1901). At one time it was felt that without knowledge of German, one did not have access to the leading scientific literature of the day, a situation now reversed, with English in dominant position. In the 19thC, German universites also played a major rôle in training English and American scientists, philologists, and philosophers, one now performed by British and American universities in training scholars of developing countries, who in turn have established the foundations of science and technology in their own countries. The items included here, apart from their intrinsic interest, have been chosen for their more or less direct links to the literary and linguistic concerns of major authors of the day. They are at the same time useful bibliographical guides in their own right. They are listed here in simple alphabetical order, with cross-references as needed. The scope of these studies reflects the lifelong work of Henry Crabb Robinson (1775-1867). The Appendix to this compilation presents a selection of editions and interpretations of the writings of this pioneering scholar. 1 Bibliography Argyle, Gisela. 1979. German Elements in the Fiction of George Eliot , Gissing , and Meredith . [George Eliot, née Mary Ann, later Marian, Evans (1819-1880); George Robert Gissing (1857-1903); and George Meredith (1828-1909)]. Frankfurt am Main; Bern; Cirencester/UK: Peter Lang. European University Papers. Series I. German Language and Literature. Vol. 74. Shows how, first, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), and then more successfully Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), and after him Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), succeeded in transmitting an ideal form of German culture that influenced these writers, and less directly or substantially other writers. George Eliot (1819-1880) seems to have had a special affinity for German language and culture. “I don’t know how far my impressions have been warped by reading German, but I have regarded the word ‘culture’ as a verbal equivalent for the highest results of past and present influences.” (The George Eliot Letters , IV, p 395. Reference due to Argyle p 195.) George Eliot, Gissing and Meredith are the nineteenth-century British novelists who, in their fiction, made the most significant and substantial use of German material. The function of this material is twofold, relating both to the life presented and to the presentation. An elucidation of the German references adds not only to a fuller understanding of the individual novels, but also of the author’s theory and practice of fiction, and of one of the experimental tendencies in the ‘wide’ tradition of the English Novel. ( pb ) Contents: George Eliot: Middlemarch (1971-1872); Daniel Deronda (1876). Gissing: The ‘Double Art’; The ‘Double Life’. Meredith: An ‘Alpine Affinity’. See also Armytage 1969. Armytage, W. H. G. [Walter Harry Green (1915-1998)]. 1969 The German Influence on English Education . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; New York, Humanities Press. The Students [ sic ] Library of Education. A monograph-length work of 110 pp of text, with 11 chapters, each devoted to some salient historical, cultural or economic movement, event, figure, etc, covering the period from the founding of the University of Wittenberg, at the beginning of the 16thC, to the present day. Has 20¾-page Bibliography, which includes many early works. Well written in a popular, sometimes even breezy or novelistic, outline style, making even basic or elementary notions unmistakably clear. No index. One of a set of such studies by the same author, same publisher, same series, all very good capsule histories of education in the respective country as well, each with useful bibliography as before, and no index: The American Influence on English Education (1967); The French Influence on English Education (1968); The Russian Influence on English Education (1969). 2 Ashton, Rosemary ( b 1947). 1980. The German Idea . Four English Writers and the Reception of German Thought 1800- 1860. Cambridge [etc]: Cambridge University Press. Treats Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), George Henry Lewes (1817-1878), and George Eliot (1819-1880). Ashton, Rosemary ( b 1947). 1986. Little Germany . German Refugees in Victorian Britain . Oxford [etc]: Oxford University Press. Oxford University Press paperback, 1989. Around the middle of the last century England became the home of a group of German exiles seeking refuge from political repression in their own country. They included in their number Karl Marx [1818-1883] and Friedrich Engels [1820-1895] and they held in common the belief in, and search for, political freedom. The outcome of that search, and the exiles’ success or failure in coming to terms with it, is the subject of this book. Marx spent his time in London at work on Das Kapital [1867; 1884; 1894], supported financially by Engels; other exiles found different spheres of activity. The ‘bourgeois’ refugees Gottfried Kinkel [1815-1882] and Friedrich Althaus [1829-1897] settled down to teaching and journalism; [Friedrich] Lessner [ sic ; also Leßner (1825- 1910)] and [Johann Georg] Eccarius [1818-1889], tailors by profession, played a part in establishing the First International Working Men’s Association in the 1860s; and among the German women who fled to England, the remarkable Johanna Kinkel [ née Mockel (1810-1858), Komponistin] and Malwida [Freiin] von Meysenbug [1816-1903] were forced to suffer the relative indignity of work as music teacher and governess respectively. Rosemary Ashton charts the fortunes of this disparate group of exiles, who constantly bickered among themselves, and also examines Victorian England through their eyes, showing how the most advanced country in Europe and, in Engels’s words, ‘the freest, or the least unfree’ country in the world appeared to foreigners seeking asylum. Their views of English liberties and restraints, fairness and prejudice, tolerance and tradition in matters of politics, religion, class, and sexual relations offer a valuable insight into Victorian life. The author has drawn on a rich store of letters, memoirs, and articles written by the exiles for German and American newspapers, and on Johanna Kinkel’s autobiographical novel about émigré life in London [ Hans Ibeles in London . Ein Familienbild aus dem Flüchtlingsleben . 1860] to illustrate this fascinating and highly readable account of a neglected area of Anglo-German relations. ( pb on inside front flap of d/w) Contents 7¾-page Introduction; I. The Road from Germany to England; 2. Three Communist Clerks: Engels, [Georg] Weerth [1822-1856], and [Ferdinand] Freiligrath [1810-1876] in Manchester, Bradford, and London; 3. The Communist 3 Intellectuals: Marx and his Party; 4. The ‘Bourgeois’ Refugees: [Arnold] Ruge [1802- 1880], Kinkel, and the Journalists, Doctors, Artists, and Teachers of the Exile; 5. The Women of the Exile; 6. The Proletariat and the Lumpenproletariat of the Exile; Epilogue ; 39¾ pp of Notes (annotations and references); 8-page Select Bibliography; Index. Full front, spine and back of d/w have reproduction of Chappius, Aspect général de Londres , vue prise de l ’Abbaye de Westminster , c1857. Back of d/w has superimposed at top round cartouches with, from top left, b&w photographs of heads of respectively, Ferdinand Freiligrath, Gottfried Kinkel, Karl Marx (centre), Friedrich Engels, Arnold Ruge. Inside back flap of d/w has portrait photograph (full-frontal head) of a fresh-faced smiling Rosemary Ashton, with minimalist biography. Packed with information. An enormous amount of labour must have gone into compiling and organizing the primary source material from which this smooth-reading narrative and anaylsis is composed. All German passages are given in idiomatic English translations, and their number and variety add to the interest, entertainment, and period feel, which is skillfully described by Ashton. The refugee experience has many parallels with that of German refugees in the Allied countries during WWII. Not without the occasional purple patch, written in the modern durchkomponiert style, which intersperses and integrates into the text journalistic, novelistic, and dramatic and theatrical touches which make
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Inhaltsverzeichnis (Mit Angabe Des Erstdrucks)
    Inhaltsverzeichnis (mit Angabe des Erstdrucks) Geleitwort (Erich Loos) IX Vorwort (Angelica Rieger, Hans W. Eirich, Christof Weiand) XI La biche blanche et le chevalier ou les avatars d'Eros et d'Agape (in: Corps ecrit 6, Paris 1983, p. 149-158) 1 Der Garten in der höfischen Literatur Frankreichs (in: RF 98, Frankfurt/M, Klostermann, 1986, S. 17-35) 8 Perceval et les reveries de Peau (in: Corps ecrit 16, Paris, 1985, p. 57-64) 23 Imagerie et structure des Lais de Marie de France (in: Atti del XIV. Congresso Internazionale di Linguistica e Filologia Romanza, Napoli, Macchiaroli, 1981, p. 381-396) 29 Prolegomenes ä I'iconographie des ceuvres de Marie de France (in: Orbis medievalis, Festschrift R.R.Bezzola, Bern, Francke 1978, p. 329-343) 40 Die altfanzösischen Verspurgatorien (in: ZRPh 88, Tübingen, Niemeyer, 1972, S. 389-402) 52 Bestiaires et lapidaires: un genre litteraire? (in: Actes du XVIIIe Congres International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes, t. VI, Tübingen, Niemeyer, 1988, p. 136-147) 63 Die Trobadorlyrik im Spiegel der poetischen Gattungen (in: Die französische Lyrik, hg.v. Dieter Janik, Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesell- schaft, 1987, S. 1-61) 73 Petrarca und die Erinnerung. Versuch einer Anwendung der Staigerschen Grund- begriffe (in: GRM XV, Heidelberg, Winter, 1965, S. 245-250) 120 II dantesco "mal perverso" (Inferno V, 93) (in: Strumenti critici 46, Bologna, II Mulino 1981, p. 435-441) 126 VI Inhaltsverzeichnis Pier della Vigna o la Poesia del Segno. Per una rilettura del canto XIII dell' "Inferno". (in: Medioevo Romanzo V, Napoli, Macchiaroli, 1978, p. 85-99) 131 La pensee de Bachelard et la litterature medievale (in: G.Bachelard.
    [Show full text]
  • GERMAN LITERARY FAIRY TALES, 1795-1848 by CLAUDIA MAREIKE
    ROMANTICISM, ORIENTALISM, AND NATIONAL IDENTITY: GERMAN LITERARY FAIRY TALES, 1795-1848 By CLAUDIA MAREIKE KATRIN SCHWABE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2012 1 © 2012 Claudia Mareike Katrin Schwabe 2 To my beloved parents Dr. Roman and Cornelia Schwabe 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisory committee chair, Dr. Barbara Mennel, who supported this project with great encouragement, enthusiasm, guidance, solidarity, and outstanding academic scholarship. I am particularly grateful for her dedication and tireless efforts in editing my chapters during the various phases of this dissertation. I could not have asked for a better, more genuine mentor. I also want to express my gratitude to the other committee members, Dr. Will Hasty, Dr. Franz Futterknecht, and Dr. John Cech, for their thoughtful comments and suggestions, invaluable feedback, and for offering me new perspectives. Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge the abundant support and inspiration of my friends and colleagues Anna Rutz, Tim Fangmeyer, and Dr. Keith Bullivant. My heartfelt gratitude goes to my family, particularly my parents, Dr. Roman and Cornelia Schwabe, as well as to my brother Marius and his wife Marina Schwabe. Many thanks also to my dear friends for all their love and their emotional support throughout the years: Silke Noll, Alice Mantey, Lea Hüllen, and Tina Dolge. In addition, Paul and Deborah Watford deserve special mentioning who so graciously and welcomingly invited me into their home and family. Final thanks go to Stephen Geist and his parents who believed in me from the very start.
    [Show full text]
  • Und Dooh Ist Vielleioht Niemand Inniger Damit Verbunden Als Ich
    Durham E-Theses Sie haben mich immer in der Zuruckgesogenheit meiner Lebensart fur isoliert von der welt gehalten; und dooh ist vielleioht niemand inniger damit verbunden als ich Von Kleist, Heinrich How to cite: Von Kleist, Heinrich (1958) Sie haben mich immer in der Zuruckgesogenheit meiner Lebensart fur isoliert von der welt gehalten; und dooh ist vielleioht niemand inniger damit verbunden als ich, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9727/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 "Sie haben mich immer in der ZurLiokgesogenheit meiner Lebensart tUr isoliert von der Welt sehaltan; und dooh ist vielleioht niemand inniger dami t verbunden ala ioh." HEINRICH VON KLEIST. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged.
    [Show full text]
  • 9. Gundolf's Romanticism
    https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2021 Roger Paulin This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Roger Paulin, From Goethe to Gundolf: Essays on German Literature and Culture. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2021, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0258 Copyright and permissions for the reuse of many of the images included in this publication differ from the above. Copyright and permissions information for images is provided separately in the List of Illustrations. In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0258#copyright Further details about CC-BY licenses are available at, https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Updated digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0258#resources Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. ISBN Paperback: 9781800642126 ISBN Hardback: 9781800642133 ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781800642140 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781800642157 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781800642164 ISBN Digital (XML): 9781800642171 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0258 Cover photo and design by Andrew Corbett, CC-BY 4.0.
    [Show full text]
  • Bettina V. Arnim Geb. Brentano Schriftstellerin * 4
    Bettina v. Arnim geb. Brentano Schriftstellerin * 4. April 1785 in Frankfurt a. Main, † 20. Januar 1859 in Berlin, begraben in Wiepersdorf. Ihr voller Vorname lautet Elisabeth Catharina Ludowica Magdalena . Sie selbst nannte sich Bettine , und so wird sie auch vielfach von den Autoren der neueren Forschung bezeichnet. Bettinas Vater war der Kaufmann und kurtrierische Resident in Frankfurt am Main Peter Anton Brentano (1735 - 1797), ihre Mutter dessen zweite Frau Maximiliane v. La Roche (1756 - 1793), eine Tochter der Schriftstellerin Sophie v. La Roche (1730 - 1807). Bettina war das siebente Kind aus dieser Ehe. Einer ihrer älteren Brüder war der Dichter Clemens Brentano (1778 - 1842), dem sie sich innig und freundschaftlich geistig verbunden fühlte und der ihre Gefühls- und Lebenswelt maßgeblich bestimmte. Als Clemens 1801 seinen Studienfreund, den jungen Achim v. Arnim kennenlernte und mit ihm fortan eine enge, sich gegenseitig befruchtende Freundschaft pflegte, die beiden gemeinsam die Liedersammlung "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" erarbeiteten und herausgaben und sich in vielseitigen geistigen und literarischen Zirkeln engagierten, wurde auch Bettina in diesen Freundeskreis und die Gedankenwelt der Romantik mit einbezogen, was schließlich 10 Jahre später zur Heirat mit Achim v. Arnim führte. Bettina, 1809 1793 Tod der Mutter. 1793 - 1797 Bettina wird gemeinsam mit drei Schwestern im Ursulinenkloster Fritzlar erzogen. 1797 Tod des Vaters; Bettina lebt zunächst vorübergehend im Haushalt des 20 Jahre älteren Halbbruders Franz in Frankfurt am Main. Sie und Ihre Schwestern Lulu und Meline wechseln noch im selben Jahr zu ihrer Großmutter Sophie v. La Roche nach Offenbach, die nun die Erziehung der Enkelinnen übernimmt. 1801 Bekanntschaft mit Achim v. Arnim; Beginn der einseitigen Freundschaft zu Karoline v.
    [Show full text]
  • On Early German Romanticism As an Essentially Skeptical Movement
    Lecture 1 On Early German Romanticism as an Essentially Skeptical Movement The Reinhold-Fichte Connection call these lectures “The Philosophical Foundations of Early German Romanticism.” I owe you some explanation for this title. First let me clarify what I mean by the term ‘foundations.’ I do not mean something I like principles or highest fundamental propositions, from which other propositions are deduced. This is worth emphasizing because the post-Kantian mood in Germany was filled with a tendency to view philosophy as an activity which necessarily departed from an absolute principle. Karl Leonhard Reinhold and Johann Gottlieb Fichte fit squarely into this tradition. Fichte was a professor in Jena from 1794–99 and his predecessor had been Reinhold, who had introduced a philosophy of this sort in 1789.1 Certainly, the group of thinkers who became known as the early German Romantics were influenced by both Reinhold and Fichte, indeed Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) had been Reinhold’s student from 1790 to 1791. During this time and also later, Novalis was in contact with a number of fellow students who had also studied under Reinhold and whose names have now been forgotten; among them Johann Benjamin Eberhard, Friedrich Karl Forberg, Franz Paul von Herbert, and Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer stand out. In disputes concerning Reinhold’s Philosophy of Elements (Elementarphilosophie), this group of young thinkers came to the conclusion that a philosophy, which seeks to follow a method of deduction from some highest fundamental principle, is either dispensable or downright impossible. In the course of these lectures, I will show you that Novalis and Friedrich Schlegel shared this conviction, namely, that it is impossible to establish an 23 24 The Philosophical Foundations of Early German Romanticism absolute foundation for philosophy.
    [Show full text]
  • A Cultural Analysis of Gustav Mahler's Early Des Knaben
    A CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF GUSTAV MAHLER’S EARLY DES KNABEN WUNDERHORN SETTINGS by HARRY LUTHER BAECHTEL A LECTURE-DOCUMENT Presented to the School of Music and Dance of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts JUNE 2014 “A Cultural Analysis of Gustav Mahler’s Early Des Knaben Wunderhorn Settings,” a lecture-document prepared by Harry Luther Baechtel in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in the School of Music and Dance. This lecture-document has been approved and accepted by: Milagro Vargas, Chair of the Examining Committee Committee in Charge: Milagro Vargas, Chair Eric Mentzel Stephen Rodgers Accepted by: Ann B. Tedards, Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Studies, School of Music and Dance ii © 2014 Harry Luther Baechtel iii CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Harry Luther Baechtel PLACE OF BIRTH: Santa Rosa, California DATE OF BIRTH: June 9, 1978 GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon Boston University Northwestern University Chapman University DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Musical Arts, Voice Performance, 2014, University of Oregon Certificate in Opera Performance, 2005, Boston University Master of Music, Voice Performance, 2002, Northwestern University Bachelor of Music, Vocal Performance, 2000, Chapman University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Opera Performance German Lieder PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Adjunct Voice Instructor, Lane Community College, 2012-2104 Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon,
    [Show full text]
  • August Friedrich Ferdinand Von Kotzebue (1761-1819)
    THE STRANGE CASE OF HERR VON K: FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON THE RECEPTION OF KOTZEBUE’S THEATRE IN BRITAIN CARLOTTA FARESE August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761-1819) was one of the most intriguing and complex playwrights of his time, and the history of the reception of his work both in his own country, Germany, and abroad is at once surprisingly contradictory and rather schizophrenic. The strange case of Kotzebue was and still is characterized by the controversial interpretation of his political attitude and of the dramatic episode of his death, and by the contradictions between the immense success his plays enjoyed in Germany and all over Europe, and the very harsh criticism to which his literary works were subjected by the greatest writers and intellectuals of his native country: Goethe, Schiller and the Schlegel brothers.1 He wrote more than 230 plays – sentimental melodramas, comedies, exotic tragedies – and was also the author of historical and autobiographical texts. His great achievement lies particularly in his competence and skill in interpreting the interests and desires of his audience who, according to him, preferred to be amused and entertained rather than instructed and educated. In opposition to the more complex and morally demanding theatre produced by the great German dramatists of his time, Kotzebue aimed at pleasing his public and filling the theatres, without worrying excessively about the impact that this choice would have on his contemporary or future critical reception. The easy and undemanding themes of his plays, based on a constant appraisal of the middle class and a moral criticism of the aristocracy, were the reason for his 1 On the relationships between Kotzebue and his contemporaries, see the interesting memorial given by his son: W.
    [Show full text]
  • THE VALUE FORM: ECONOMIES of PROSE in TIECK, KELLER, and WALSER a Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School O
    THE VALUE FORM: ECONOMIES OF PROSE IN TIECK, KELLER, AND WALSER A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Nathan James Taylor December 2017 © 2017 Nathan James Taylor THE VALUE FORM: ECONOMIES OF PROSE IN TIECK, KELLER, AND WALSER Nathan James Taylor, Ph. D. Cornell University 2017 This dissertation explores literary economies of prose in German-language literature from the 1830s to the early twentieth century, granting particular focus to questions of economic value. The problem of value, this study argues, becomes a central literary concern after the end of the Kunstperiode (Heine) when the question of literature’s relation to everyday life – the central problem of prosaic art – turns into a reflection on the value of literature as art, as commodity, as work. While value remains an elusive problem in aesthetic, economic, and moral discourses of the nineteenth and early-twentieth century, literary authors such as Ludwig Tieck, Gottfried Keller, and Robert Walser generate an arsenal of value forms (Marx) that, in different ways, interrogate and shape relations between literature and the world, life and art, work and play, and, most of all, the status of the economic in literary texts. I analyze three value forms in Tieck, Keller, and Walser: lack and surplus; credit and debt; performance (Leistung) and invention. The problem of prose’s value is literalized in Ludwig Tieck’s novella Des Lebens Überfluß (1838), which documents how a last-resort Romantic attempt to turn the lack of poetry in a prosaic world into surplus runs up against value’s sine qua non: finitude or, in Tieck’s novella, need.
    [Show full text]
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
    27 OFTEN DOWN, BUT NEVER OUT SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834) n his quest for a livelihood, in his family life, and in his response to the Enlightenment, the Ipoet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge is the contrary of the lesser writer Sydney Smith. His gi- ant weeping willow overshadows Smith’s modest hawthorn, and his letters, unlike Smith’s, are the letters of an unhappy man. Coleridge’s troubles begin in childhood. In 1781, on the threshold of his ninth year, the death of his father, the Vicar of Ottery in Devon, leaves him in the charge of his brother George. After be- ing schooled at Christ’s Hospital, he goes up to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he distinguishes himself as a scholar; falls in love with Mary Evans, whose mother tends him with maternal affection when he is ill; and indulg- es in enough wayward behaviour to pile up debts he cannot pay. During a three-year period beginning when he is eighteen, he lapses from chastity in his association with loose women. In despair and shame, resisting the temptation of suicide, he enlists in the dragoons, or light cavalry, under the name Silas Tomkyn Comberbache. His friends and family succeed in trac- ing him, and after much difficulty his brothers George and James procure his discharge, ostensibly on the grounds of his insanity. Soon after returning to Cambridge, Coleridge meets Robert Southey, and the two young poets, both radicals, concoct a scheme only a little less hare-brained than the flight into the military. With other enthusiasts, they will found a Utopian colony in the United States of America to practise pantisocracy (the rule of all as equals) and aspheterism (commonality of property).
    [Show full text]
  • 13. Under the Horse's Tail
    https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2021 Roger Paulin This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Roger Paulin, From Goethe to Gundolf: Essays on German Literature and Culture. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2021, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0258 Copyright and permissions for the reuse of many of the images included in this publication differ from the above. Copyright and permissions information for images is provided separately in the List of Illustrations. In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0258#copyright Further details about CC-BY licenses are available at, https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Updated digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0258#resources Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. ISBN Paperback: 9781800642126 ISBN Hardback: 9781800642133 ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781800642140 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781800642157 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781800642164 ISBN Digital (XML): 9781800642171 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0258 Cover photo and design by Andrew Corbett, CC-BY 4.0.
    [Show full text]
  • 5. Adding Stones to the Edifice: Patterns of German Biography1
    https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2021 Roger Paulin This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Roger Paulin, From Goethe to Gundolf: Essays on German Literature and Culture. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2021, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0258 Copyright and permissions for the reuse of many of the images included in this publication differ from the above. Copyright and permissions information for images is provided separately in the List of Illustrations. In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0258#copyright Further details about CC-BY licenses are available at, https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Updated digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0258#resources Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. ISBN Paperback: 9781800642126 ISBN Hardback: 9781800642133 ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781800642140 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781800642157 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781800642164 ISBN Digital (XML): 9781800642171 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0258 Cover photo and design by Andrew Corbett, CC-BY 4.0.
    [Show full text]